Yesterday was the The National Day of Action Against Police Brutality, and guess what went down in Brooklyn? Yes, just that. From a reader:
This morning at 11:30am a young woman was having an altercation with about 8 folks from the nypd at the R/M 25th st stop in bklyn. After it was over and she was on her way to the turn style, they came back to arrest her. When she resisted, they tasered her. Clearly, I don't know the background, but she was one, unarmed, woman and the tasering was undeniably excessive.
Here's the video that this amazing reader shot on the spot:
This is breaking news, so I don't know if anyone is organizing around this incident, but please use the comments section as a place to link folks to that work if and when it happens!
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Where was the police brutality? Did something happen before the videotaping started?
The video shows a woman with a strong build attacking a police officer and the policeman tasering her as she is attempting to assault her. That seems pretty justified to me. If you are going to attack a cop, or anyone really, it is no surprise that they will respond.
What should the cops have done instead? They tried to cuff her and hold her standing up. But she became violent. Should they have thrown her down on the ground face first and pushed their knees into her back? Punched her? Used their night sticks?
Unless something happened before the video started rolling, it's clear the cops did nothing wrong. The fact that there were 8 of them on scene suggests that there must have been a prolonged problem with cooperation before the tasering.
Police brutality is a problem. This just isn't evidence of that problem.
I disagree. Tasering is a last resort and the step before gun fire. Not to mention her crime was a misdemeanor. There was no premise of her being dangerous. Heated and angry, yes. Also, her kicking was a result of a taser being pointed at her. I don't think she was trying to kick the officer but rather she was trying to kick the taser our of his hand. At any rate, tasering should be done if the perpetrator has drawn blood or something. Throwing a kick should be expected and officers are trained to prepare. I think it would be different if she had knocked a few guys down and then she was tasered.
"Tasering is a last resort and the step before gun fire."
Are you kidding me? Tasering can result in death if over used, or misused, but cops often prefer it to the harm that a nightstick will impose. My cousin foolishly tried resisting arrest just last week & got a compound leg fracture for his trouble. Who knows when/if he'll ever walk normally? I wish to God that they would've Tasered him instead.
There are some stupid cops out there, doing stupid stuff, and I've confronted more than a few, but its never advisable to resist arrest.
"I don't think she was trying to kick the officer but rather she was trying to kick the taser out of his hand."
Are you SERIOUS? Do you REALLY think an NYPD officer--or any police officer, for that matter--is really going to think "oh no, she was just kicking the TASER! It's okay if in her wild attempt to disarm me, she accidentally kicks me in the face." No! The officer is going to protect him/herself and his/her coworkers. If this video is evidence of anything, it shows that even when a suspect is handcuffed, they obviously still pose a threat to officers. Like cattrack2 says below, you need to cooperate when you're being arrested. If not, you are resisting arrest, and there's no gray area to resisting.
On an additional note, I would just like to say that police officers across the country put their lives on the line every day to protect us, and while a few rotten officers have done some really horrible things, I think it is safe to trust the judgment of the average officer. Nothing frustrates me more than the tarnished names of good officers who are following department protocol when dealing with uncooperative members of the public. These officers did nothing wrong, just because someone caught it on film doesn't mean this was brutality.
"I don't think she was trying to kick the officer but rather she was trying to kick the taser out of his hand."
Are you SERIOUS? Do you REALLY think an NYPD officer--or any police officer, for that matter--is really going to think "oh no, she was just kicking the TASER! It's okay if in her wild attempt to disarm me, she accidentally kicks me in the face." No! The officer is going to protect him/herself and his/her coworkers. If this video is evidence of anything, it shows that even when a suspect is handcuffed, they obviously still pose a threat to officers. Like cattrack2 says below, you need to cooperate when you're being arrested. If not, you are resisting arrest, and there's no gray area to resisting.
On an additional note, I would just like to say that police officers across the country put their lives on the line every day to protect us, and while a few rotten officers have done some really horrible things, I think it is safe to trust the judgment of the average officer. Nothing frustrates me more than the tarnished names of good officers who are following department protocol when dealing with uncooperative members of the public. These officers did nothing wrong, just because someone caught it on film doesn't mean this was brutality.
I would not assume that the woman is a strong person from her frame. Tall, yes. The woman looks as though she either kicked or attempted to kick another officer, just before she was tazed. I think kicking is a behavior that can result in injury, and we do not have the ability to estimate the power behind that action.
I think the question is, was the officer too ready to fire, or did he (or she) genuinely think the woman was hurting the other officer? The video does not show whether or not her foot made contact. Without that information, it's hard to say that this is an example of police brutality.
Small, big or otherwise, you don't have a right to resist arrest. I know more than a little about this :-)
But the video opens with her doing just that. I certainly have no idea what she was arrested for, or if they were legitimate charges or not, but when the police say they're going to arrest you, turn around, put your hands up, and cooperate. You got beef with the police, you let the lawyers fight. Cops rely on the Taser oftentimes because using a nightstick could easily be worse.
I'm shocked at the defense of tasing in these comments! This young woman was resisting arrest, that much is clear, and she did kick a cop. However, that is NOT justification to tase someone - people seem to think that tasing is a relatively harmless means of subduing a suspect without having to resort to gunfighter or nightsticks. Tasing is NOT harmless, it can in fact be very dangerous and has lead to death in many cases (this woman may have a heart condition, for instance, which the tasing would have exacerbated), in addition to which it is extremely, extremely painful. Kicking a cop, while an assualt, is not the same thing as pulling a gun on a cop, and it is completely inappropriate to react to her behavior with this extreme measure.
As tasers gain popularity across the country as a "safe" alternative to guns, cops are going to start relying on these brutal methods of dealing with unruly suspects more and more, rather than nonviolent alternatives. There were EIGHT cops there and one woman who resisted arrest and attempted to kick a cop. Tasers should be a tool of last resort if there is no other option - NOT a means to subdue anyone who's arguing or resisting you. All that's going to happen as a result of police brutality like this is people are going to learn to be afraid of cops and blindly comply with their demands for fear of injury.
So what should they have done instead?
I think the first option should be to get two or three of them to hold her while she is resisting and then have another officer attempt to cuff her.
And if you look at the tape, that is exactly what they tried to do first.
But then she broke free and tried to assault an officer. With so many guns, nightsticks, etc. around, the cops didn't foolishly wait for her to become even more violent, putting them at risk.
I don't like it when people are tased. An easy way to avoid that problem is to not attack an officer doing their job. Unlike some of the other stories Courtney linked to, I feel no desire at all to protest the cops actions.
I don't have a problem with people getting tased after violently assaulting cops. This is not police brutality.
Um, that's my subway stop. I'm going to try to find out more from the neighborhood association.
This is such a slippery slope.
Maybe there should be a law where police officers are required to say "Face down on the ground right now or I'm going to tase you". But, until that law is passed, these cops did nothing wrong.
I live a few blocks from this station. There's a live third rail just a few yards from where this is going down. What if this woman shoved a cop and she or he fell on the tracks?
I hate siding with the NYPD, but this is not a good example of police brutality.
This is such a slippery slope.
Maybe there should be a law where police officers are required to say "Face down on the ground right now or I'm going to tase you". But, until that law is passed, these cops did nothing wrong.
I live a few blocks from this station. There's a live third rail just a few yards from where this is going down. What if this woman shoved a cop and she or he fell on the tracks?
I hate siding with the NYPD, but this is not a good example of police brutality.
sorry for the double post. Either firefox or AdBlockPlus are causing some issues with this page.
THERE WERE EIGHT COPS! do you seriously think they couldn't have held her with a couple more if they tried? She was only able to kick out in the first place because they all let her go. Sure, there are better examples of police brutality, but they're obviously trigger-happy.
"Here's the video that this amazing reader shot on the spot"
If the "amazing" reader is the person harping on the cops about "you'll be all over the news" I only think that is amazingly stupid.
I also would have thought that eight trained NYPD officers could hold down one unarmed woman without the need to resort to any type of instrument. Otherwise New York is in serious trouble. You know, one holding each limb, that still leaves another 4 to take notes or eat donuts or something. How on earth can you believe she was putting them at risk? This is exactly what they want you to think
Did anyone else think it noteworthy that the police officer doing the tasing is a white man, while the recipient is a black woman? Just an observation.
I would be interested to know why she became so violent. It is at least possible that their is a mental health issue here - would that justify tasing? A calmer assessment of the situation could have been possible. People suffering from a mental disturbance should not be subjected to further physical trauma. But of course we'll all just assume the troublemaker is drunk or high.
Oh, and, just in case you don't know anyone that has been tased, I can assure you that is extremely painful, as evidenced by her complete incapacitation for the rest of the video. Maybe it doesn't seem brutal to you because it's easier to see punching and kicking than it is to see 50,000 volts being fired into someone's chest
This is a good page for more information on the hundreds of people who have died after being tased: http://www.amnestyusa.org/us-human-rights/taser-abuse/page.do?id=1021202
Personally, I think this case is disproportionate and against international human rights law on the use of force by police. How can you even watch it without flinching? It is sickening. The UN Committee Against Torture has even suggested that tasering may amount to torture.
People should have a right to be tased by people of their own race.
Same sex, too. Police should operate in huge squads representing all ethnic/gender groups, and then if force is necessary the one most similar to the (most likely mentally incompetent and innocent) person can do the tasing.
The rest can "eat donuts" as you suggested, Conflicted.
Reading through the comments here I can only assume that most of the people objecting to the use of the taser in this instance have A) never been kicked in the face by someone and B) never tried to safely immobilize someone who was violently resisting being restrained.
The police had two options in this case: physically restrain a kicking, thrashing woman or use the taser. While I don't mean to dismiss the very real potential risks associated with tasers, the likelihood of injury resulting from being physically restrained is probably much higher.
Immobilizing someone without the use of deadly force is a risky endeavor even for trained professionals, and there is a huge potential for injury to the person being restrained. It really seems to me like the officers in this case made the best decision they could, and that that decision was motivated largely by concern for safety - both their own and that of the woman they were arresting.
goodbye feministing - cause if y'all can't see why this is police brutality and racist policing then we are not a community and i (as a woman of color) know we're not on the same page. the job of the police is to de-escalate situations. obviously the woman in question did nothing illegal (before the cop grabbed her arm - otherwise she would have been running, not walking and exiting the station) - and the police should never have let the situation get that out of control - that's why they receive a salary. if they can't do that (de-escalate and avoid violence when possible) - get a new fucking job. if they can't push her up against a wall and restrain her - get another fucking job (8 cops vs. one 115 llb woman? come the fuck on). tasers are for when someone on pcp is coming at you with a baseball bat and you'd like to do something other than shot them with a gun (or any other time it would be okay to use a gun - tasers are not a substitute for restraint).
still the most important factor of all is the counterfactual: if she were a white woman this never would have happened. she probably talked trash to the cops (which is not illegal by the way). if she were white they would not have attempted to arrest her, nor would they have tased her. the situation would have been dealt with totally different, the cops would have de-escalated and let a white woman leave. then everyone would have gone on with their days.
sorry to have to break it down - but those who refuse to see that are those who would rather not deal with the reality of oppression - that if affects whole situations and ways of beings, that people of color live in a police state, and that those who don't voice opposition are complicit. this is not an online community in which these things are recognized and therefore - i refuse to participate. peace out! and FUCK THE POLICE!
I agree with you that race played a part here. If she was white, it is less likely that she would have been tased. Your statement "If this were a white woman this never would have happened" is completely false. You can do a quick google search (e.g., white woman tasered) and you'll find a bunch of articles where white women were tasered for far less, from soccer moms to 72 year old grandmothers.
The unfortunate fact that race biases the decisions of officers doesn't change the fact that she assaulted a police officer. This was AFTER they tried to repeatedly detain her through other means. She wasn't some 5'0 115 pound woman who could easily be restrained. Whether you are white or black, if you repeatedly resist arrest, break free of a hold, and try to attack an officer, you risk police taking more certain measures to subdue you. That's why people who are otherwise concerned with police brutality aren't rushing to support this woman.